Sprightly

  The orchestral musician needs to know which things are bad and which are good. This usually applies to conductors and repertoire, but it easily spreads to soloists, critics, administrators, and a myriad of other things as well. A quick and easy aid to forming an opinion is to have a default setting, let's say any new thing is bad until it passes a litmus test to qualify for goodness. The reverse is of course true, albeit rare, as nobody wants to play the fool. Much lively debate goes on backstage as players take sides or work towards formulating opinions about the good and the bad. Some folks enjoy the verbal sparring. Others get less pleasure from it or become positively annoyed. If you take the debate too personally, it can be painful to see a sacred cow slaughtered on the altar of prevailing opinion; or else, hearing a perennial scapegoat suddenly elevated might bring on a sort of persecution mania, the feeling everyone around you has mysteriously taken leave of their s...

Last week we played, among other things, the Adagio from Mahler's unfinished 10th symphony. For health reasons Pierre Boulez had to withdraw from two weeks of conducting, passing the baton onto Cristain Macelaru and Asher Fisch. Another notable piece on offer was the Bartók Divertimento for String Orchestra, which has had a notable history in our orchestra, particularly for the bass section, but about which I can write absolutely nothing. Although my fondness for Mahler's music has gone up and down over the years, the 10th symphony has always been a favorite. As a youngster   in the early 1970s , I had the good fortune to be part of what I think was at the time a very rare early performance of the performing version by Deryck Cooke. The mystique behind the piece captivated me - Mahler's supposed obsession with death, the poignant funeral procession for the New York fireman which passed below his hotel window. The sensationalism behind that performance also made a lasting im...

Bass Blog Back Better than Before! Homer : ...the extra 'B' is for BYOBB. Bart : What's that extra B for? Homer : It's a typo. Sorry for the long sabbatical. In truth, I've been waiting for three people to ask in person about the blog before resuming. It only took six months... There are certain professions where having an eighty-two-year-old fill in for a seventy-one-year-old doesn't raise a bushy eyebrow. The United States Senate comes to mind, along with the chairman's seat at some exclusive private clubs, the College of Cardinals, and if something which happens once every 600 years or so makes for a trend, perhaps one day even the Papacy itself. And then of course, there is Conducting. The {redacted} SO saw itself in just such a position last month, when due to some health issues our music director withdrew from two weeks of concerts here, along with a three week tour to Asia. Edo de Waart stepped in for the local performances. Osmo V ä nsk ä fill...

Stop the Planets - I Want to Get Off The comedian Jerry Seinfeld once did a bit where he wondered what aliens landing on earth would make of dogs and their owners. Seeing members of one species following those of another, picking up their poop and carrying it around in a little bag, which would the aliens consider to be the masters? The thought crossed my mind the other day while playing The Planets with a click track syncing the live orchestra to a film. While both dog and owner are at least living creatures, the subservience of something alive to something not alive is problematic, at least when considering that the 'live-ness' of the music is supposed to be one of ts most compelling features. Strangely, the most 'real' imagery from the Planets film was shot by the robots sent to Mars a few years back, actual photographs taken by real cameras as opposed to digital animations. Whether in service of our curiosity or merely our vanity, those machines nevertheless op...

programming, old school! A concert featuring an overture, symphony, concerto and virtuoso showpiece, nary a Broadway show-tune in earshot, Teutonic death worship given the week off, sweltering heat, swarming gnats, cannons – this week had it all. Program A BARBER Overture to The School for Scandal SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 9 in E-flat Major, Op. 70 INTERMISSION BARBER Violin Concerto, Op. 14 R AVEL Tzigane (Joshua Bell, violin) Program B BERLIOZ Three Pieces from Romeo and Juliet, Op. 17 INTERMISSION VERDI Overture to Giovanna d'Arco DVOŘÁK Slavonic Dance No. 2, Op. 72 MENDELSSOHN The Hebrides Overture, Op. 26, “Fingal's Cave” ROSSINI Overture to William Tell Program C TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 36 INTERMISSION TCHAIKOVSKY P iano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat Minor, Op. 23 TCHAIKOVSKY 1 812, Overture solonelle , Op. 49 The brief flashback I had in in the middle of program B took me back to circa 1993. That is until I realized we were playing on a Thursday night and...

The week that wasn't There were two concerts scheduled this week and, as luck would have it, I ended up off both nights. Having Wednesday night off was not by choice. The Weill and Schrecker program called for a very small orchestra. As I have mentioned before, any concert with 'Gala', 'Special', 'Festive', or other superlative attached immediately goes to the top of my wish list for days off. All of the speechifying, bowing, hugging, and whatnot gives me the willies, so Saturday had a big 'X' through it in my calendar. I suffered a brief pang of regret, looking at the program order and noticing the concert ended with 'Ravel', fearing I might miss out on another extraordinary overtime bonanza until it became apparent 'Ravel' referred to Daphnis and not Bolero. Also, Conlon has much better clock management skills than Eschenbach.

Eschenbach and More Show Tunes The Sunday concert (I don't know what to call it, is 5 PM afternoon or evening?) seemed like a microcosm of the whole Ravinia experience. A small crowd witnessed an underutilized orchestra swelter through a program of Broadway show music. The most disturbing fact is that may have been the best concert of the week. If anyone needs help filling out their Ravinia scorecard, my records show the following after two weeks: Total concerts: 6 Pops concerts: 3 (.500 average) Concerts with Patti Lupone: 0 Usually all sorts of interesting things happen when Christoph Eschenbach comes to town. One of the more mundane yet annoying is that the rehearsal schedule gets all cockeyed. Thursday 10-12:30 Brahms Symphony 1:30-4 Dvorak Symphony Brahms Double Friday: 2:30-5 Dvorak Symphony Brahms Symphony Korngold violin concerto At first glance the above seems unremarkable, until one realizes that the two Brahms pieces were on the Friday concert, the Dvorak and Korngol...